that's impossible under our Covenant… ” '
'It is the nature of luck to sidestep the impossible,' she said. 'We speak for the High Gregory when we express our confidence that you'll find a way.'
She had so mastered the idiom of command that Spur wasn't sure whether this was a threat or a promise. Either way, it gave Ngonda pause.
'Allworthy, I'd like nothing better than to accommodate you in this,' he said. 'Walden is perhaps the least of the Thousand Worlds, but even here we've heard of your efforts to help preserve the one true species.' A bead of sweat dribbled down his forehead. 'But my instructions are to accommodate your requests within reason. Within reason, Allworthy. It is not reasonable to land a hover in the commons of a village like Littleton. You must understand that these are country people.'
She pointed at Spur. 'Here is one of your country people.'
'Memsen!' shouted a voice from the top of the ramp. 'Memsen, I am so bored. Either bring him up right now or I'm coming down.'
Her tongue flicked to the corner of her mouth. 'You wouldn't like it,' she called back, 'it's very hot.' Which was definitely true, although as far as Spur could tell, the weather had no effect on her. 'There are bugs.'
'That's it!' The High Gregory of Kenning, Phosphorescence of the Eternal Radiation and luck maker of the L'ung, scampered down the ramp of the hover.
'There,' he said, 'I did it, so now don't tell me to go back.' He was wearing green sneakers with black socks, khaki shorts and a t-shirt with a pix of a dancing turtle, which had a human head. 'Spur! You look sadder than you did before.' He had knobby knees and fair skin and curly brown hair. If he had been born in Littleton, Spur would've guessed that he was ten years old. 'Did something bad happen to you? Say something. Do you still talk funny like you did on the tell?'
Spur had a hundred questions but he was so surprised that all he could manage was, 'Why are you doing this?'
'Why?' The boy's yellow eyes opened wide. 'Why, why, why?' He stooped to pick up a handful of the blackened litter and examined it with interest, shifting it around on his open palm. 'Because I got one of my luck feelings when we were talking. They're not like ideas or dreams or anything so I can't explain them very well. They're just special. Memsen says they're not like the feelings that other people get, but that it's all right to have them and I guess it is.' He twirled in a tight circle then, flinging the debris in a wide scatter. 'And that's why.' He rubbed his hands on the front of his shorts and approached Spur. 'Am I supposed to shake hands or kiss you? I can't remember.'
Ngonda stepped between Spur and the High Gregory as if to protect him. 'The custom is to shake hands.'
'But I shook with you already.' He tugged at Ngonda's sleeve to move him aside. 'You have hardly any luck left, friend Constant. I'm afraid it's all pretty much decided with you.' When the deputy failed to give way, the High Gregory dropped to all fours and scooted through his legs. 'Hello, Spur,' said the boy as he scrambled to his feet. The High Gregory held out his hand and Spur took it.
Spur was at once aware that he was sweaty from the heat of the day, while the boy's hand was cool as river rock. He could feel the difference in their size: the High Gregory's entire hand fit in his palm and weighed practically nothing.
'Friend Spur, you have more than enough luck,' the boy murmured, low enough so that only Spur could hear. 'I can see we're going to have an adventure.'
'Stay up there,' cried Memsen. 'No!' She was glowering up the ramp at the hatch, which had inexplicably filled with kids who were shouting at her. Spur couldn't tell which of them said what.
'When do we get our turn?'
'You let the Greg off.'
'We came all this way.'
'He's bored? I'm more bored.'
'Hey move, you're in my way!'
'But I want to see too.'
Several in the back started to chant. 'Not fair, not fair!'
Memsen ground her toes into the fake forest floor. 'We have to go now,' she said. 'If we let them off the hover, it'll take hours to round them up.'
'I'll talk to them.' High Gregory bounded up the ramp, making sweeping motions with his hands. 'Back, get back, this isn't it.' The kids fell silent. 'We're not there yet. We're just stopping to pick someone up.' He paused halfway up and turned to the adults. 'Spur is coming, right?'
Ngonda was blotting sweat from around his eyes with a handkerchief. 'If he chooses.' He snapped it with a quick flick of the wrist and then stuffed it into his pocket, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Spur.
Spur could feel his heart pounding. He'd wanted to fly ever since he'd realized that it was possible and didn't care if simplicity counseled otherwise. But he wasn't sure he wanted to be responsible for bringing all these upsiders to Littleton.
'So.' Memsen must have mistaken his hesitation for fear. 'You have never been in a hover, Prosper Gregory of Walden?'
'Call him Spur,' said the High Gregory. 'It doesn't mean you have to have sex with him.'
Memsen bowed to Spur. 'He has not yet invited us to take that familiarity.'
'Yes, please call me Spur.' He tried not to think about having sex with Memsen. 'And yes,' he picked up his kit, 'I'll come with you.'
'Lead then.' She indicated that he should be first up the ramp. Ngonda followed him. Memsen came last, climbing slowly with her small and painstakingly accurate steps.
As he approached the top of the ramp, the coolness of the hover's interior washed over him. It was like wading into Mercy's Creek. He could see that the kids had gathered around the High Gregory. There were about a dozen of them in a bay that was about six by ten meters. Boxes and containers were strapped to the far bulkhead.
'Now where are we going?'
'When do we get to see the fire?'
'Hey, who's that?'
Most of the kids turned to see him step onto the deck. Although well lit, the inside of the hover was not as bright as it had been outside. Spur blinked as his eyes adjusted to the difference.
'This is Spur,' said the High Gregory. 'We're going to visit his village. It's called Littleton.'
'Why? Are they little there?'
A girl of six or perhaps seven sidled over to him. 'What's in your bag?' She was wearing a dress of straw- colored brocade that hung down to her silk slippers. The gold chain around her neck had a pendant in the shape of a stylized human eye. Spur decided that it must be some kind of costume.
He slung his kit off his shoulder and set it down in front of her so she could see. 'Just my stuff.'
'It's not very big,' she said doubtfully. 'Do you have something in there for me?'
'Your Grace,' said Memsen, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder, 'we are going to leave Spur alone for now.' She turned the girl around and gave her a polite nudge toward the other kids. 'You'll have to forgive them,' she said to Spur. 'They're used to getting their own way.'
Seven
I have a deep sympathy with war, it so apes the gait and bearing of the soul. - Journal, 1840
Spur had studied geography in school and knew how big Walden was, but for the first time in his life he felt it. From the ground, the rampant forests restricted what anyone could see of the world. Even the fields and the lakes were hemmed in by trees. Spur had never been to the Modilon Ocean but he'd stood on the shores of Great Kamit Lake. The sky over the lake was impressive, but there was no way to take the measure of its scale. Spur had hiked the Tarata Mountains, but they were forested to their summits and the only views were from ledges. There was a tower on Samson Kokoda that afforded a 360-degree view, but the summit was just 1,300 meters tall.
Now the hover was cruising through the clouds at an altitude of 5,700 meters, according to the tell on the bulkhead. Walden spread beneath him in all its breathtaking immensity. Maps, measured in inflexible kilometers and flat hec-tares, were a sham compared to this. Every citizen should see what he was seeing, and if it violated simplicity, he didn't care.
Constant Ngonda, on the other hand, was not enjoying the view. He curled on a bench facing away from the hull, which Memsen had made transparent when she'd partitioned a private space for them. His neck muscles were
